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Mobile Web Development

The mobile Web refers to access to the world wide web, i.e. the use of browser-based Internet services, from a handheld mobile device, such as a smartphone, a feature phone or a tablet computer, connected to a mobile network or other wireless network.

Traditionally, access to the Web has been via fixed-line services on large-screen laptops and desktop computers. However, the Web is becoming more accessible by portable and wireless devices. An early 2010 ITU (International Telecommunication Union) report said that with the current growth rates, web access by people on the go — via laptops and smart mobile devices – is likely to exceed web access from desktop computers within the next five years.[1] The shift to mobile Web access has been accelerating with the rise since 2007 of larger multitouch smartphones, and of multitouch tablet computers since 2010. Both platforms provide better Internet access, screens, and mobile browsers- or application-based user Web experiences than previous generations of mobile devices have done. Web designers may work separately on such pages, or pages may be automatically converted as in Mobile Wikipedia.

The distinction between mobile Web applications and native applications is anticipated to become increasingly blurred, as mobile browsers gain direct access to the hardware of mobile devices (including accelerometers and GPS chips), and the speed and abilities of browser-based applications improve. Persistent storage and access to sophisticated user interface graphics functions may further reduce the need for the development of platform-specific native applications.

mobile web applications have gained popularity since the advent of iPhone and iPad, all the credit goes to Apple in this regard. But we should not forget Google's Android which helped users with low budget to use smart phone and devices. Microsoft was too late to follow all this.

Mobile web application development is a better choice for delivering content and shopping functions, since content can be easily accessed by search engines. It is easier to drive advertising traffic to a mobile landing page than to drive traffic to an app store to complete a download before visitors are able to interact with your content. These advantages make developing mobile web a popular solution.

mobile application development is becoming so poplar after the invention of iphone and its so easy to access internet and other flexible features over mobile and its became so popular as user can use different social media sites. now-a-days mobile becoming a source of internet marketing.

A mobile website design would help you increase the number of visitors who would more frequently visit your website.
A website which can be easily accessed by mobile gives away sign of confidence.
A mobile website design has a wider scope. It targets people who are constantly moving from one place t another which means it will easily gain more and more popularity.
Improved User Experience
Faster Download Speed
Engagement and Context.. etc
so mobile web development is getting popular and necessary now-a-days.

The Mobile devices have different hardware characteristics compared with desktop or laptop computers.
There are many features of mobile such as orientation of screen while rotates, Touch Screen for input, etc.
The API like Geolocation or orientation are not supported on desktops, and these APIs provides users new ways to interact with your site by using mobile devices.

According to the recent statistics published by Juniper Research, it has been estimated that there would be an exponential growth in the number of mobile web users by 2014. The number of mobile web users will climb up to 2.4 billion from 1.2 billion. Mobile Website Design is a new technology which is fast catching on with online businesses. Each day, new statistical data is confirming the rise in mobile usage. A mobile compatible website has become essential to reach out to new potential customers.

Last few years mobile web has significantly increased because people have skipped buying PCs and Laptops gone straight to be mobile. The main reason is faster mobile broadband connection and cheaper data service. So the web developers and designers can no longer afford to ignore it.

Web-Based: These types of applications are accessed using browsers in mobile devices. The mobile development interface uses a collection of templates based on the jQuery Mobile framework. This framework is designed to seamlessly run and correctly deliver mobile web application on varied mobile devices with different operating systems. Because of a single codebase, a mobile web application can be accessed from any mobile device, irrespective of operating system. The process of accessing such applications is very simple. All that is needed is to have the correct URL, that you put into the mobile browser, and respective id with password. The application code is not stored on the device but is delivered by the application server. This way you can easily handle application updates. You only need to update the application on the server, allowing potentially thousands of users to enjoy the latest version. The second advantage to this approach is that you are not required to send updates to every client (as required in native applications), which ensures that the accessed application is current with all provided features. Oracle Corporation provides a simple free tool called Application Express (APEX) with its database that allows you to rapidly build web application that can be accessed on the desktop, a mobile device, or both. To build a mobile application in APEX, you use SQL and PL/SQL code. Here are some pros and cons to web-based applications:

Pros:
- Updates are uploaded only to the application server and become instantly available for all platforms and devices.
- Same application code for all browser-enabled mobile device.
- Use of same application building procedures and core web technologies.
- Doesn’t need app store approval.

Cons:
- To access these applications you need a reasonable Internet connection.
- Slower than native applications because these applications are based on interpreted code rather than compiled code.
- Not available in the app stores.
- Cannot interact with device hardware such as camera, microphone, compass, file uploading etc.

Native (On-Device): These applications are on the other side and are built for specific mobile operating system, such as Windows Mobile, Android, iOS, or BlackBerry. Native mobile applications are written for a specific target operating system in its own supported language. For instance, to develop an application for Windows device, you’ll use C# (C Sharp), for iOS devices it is Objective-C, and for Android, you need to be a master of Java. This means that your app is tied to a specific platform and won’t run on another. Native applications are downloaded and stored locally on the device. Because of this capability, these applications are considered better performers. Additionally, these applications have the biggest advantage to interact with different device hardware (camera, compass, accelerometer, and more). Using a local data store (SQL Lite), these applications can even work when disconnected from the Internet. As a developer you have to handle version discrepancies because updates of these applications are downloaded manually. Let’s see what pros and cons this category has:

Pros:
- Being native, it performs better than its counterpart.
- Offline availability.
- Complete access to device’s hardware.
- Can be added to and searched in an app store.

Cons:
- Expensive to develop.
- Single platform support. Need to build a separate app for a different OS, which means additional time and cost.
- To get space on the device’s app store, your app is required to undergo an approval process.

In the recent time most of the users are using mobiles for surffing Internet and for attacting the visitors we have to provide them a mobile friendly site or we can also provide the mobile app for our visitors.

Mobile web development includes creating a mobile version of your website or creating apps for the same. It is of great benefit because the excess in the usage of smartphones helps to fetch more traffic